...The author of "Everyday Use," Alice Walker, portrays that society would value a person such as Maggie more so than her sister Dee. The portrayal of the two characters differs in a huge way considering that Maggie is portrayed as an unattractive, non confident person compared to Dee. The value of Maggie to society is not that she is less confident, but that she has a strong understanding of her heritage and family history that she would pass on to future generations. On the other hand, Dee is seen as a person who has lost her heritage and has become superficial in material things and bigger ideas than her family. Walker shows the portrayal of Maggie and Dee's value of family history when the family quilt is mentioned. The quilt, "had been pieced by Grandma Dee than Big Dee and me [Mama] had hung them on the quilt frames on the front porch and quilted them" (75). This illustrates the importance of the quilts history it has in the family. Walker also gives light to how Maggie would cherish and use the quilts and add to them just as the past women in her family. Whereas Dee only wants the quilts to hang up, ignoring the importance of using the quilt and adding to it has to the...
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...practices. Each culture has a purpose on its inhabitants and it helps fuel the inhabitant’s thoughts and beliefs on everyday life. In Alice Walker short story Everyday Use she talks about a certain heritage of the Johnson’s family depicted in the South in the1960s. The story main characters are Dee, the narrator, Mrs. Johnson (Dee’s mother), and Maggie Dee’s sisters. The story starts with Mrs. Johnson and Maggie waiting on Dee to arrive who arrives with a gentleman when Maggie and Mrs. Johnson learn that Dee has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo to find her root. The story is evolved around the family’s heritage of...
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...Characters in “Everyday Use” Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” examines the conflict between family members that are debating over whether to use or to preserve pieces of their family’s heritage. Mama, the mother of Maggie and Dee, is a self-reliant and hardworking woman who can perform any task that a man can. She lives at home with Maggie, who is rather shy and is embarrassed by the burn scars covering her arms and legs. Both Maggie and Mama are awaiting a visit from Maggie’s educated sister, Dee. Upon Dee and her male companion’s arrival, Mama and Maggie stand in awe while gazing at Dee’s exquisite dress and golden earrings. Shortly after her arrival, Dee announces...
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..."Everyday Use" is a short story by Alice Walker. It was first published in 1973 as part of Walker's short story collection, In Love and Trouble. The story is told in first person by the "Mama", an African American woman living in the Deep South with one of her two daughters. The story humorously illustrates the differences between Mrs. Johnson and her shy younger daughter Maggie, who still live traditionally in the rural South, and her educated, successful daughter Dee,or "Wangero" as she prefers to be called, who scorns her immediate roots in favor of a pretentious "native African" identity. The story centers around one day when the older daughter, Dee, visits from college after time away and a conflict between them over some heirloom family possessions. The struggle reflects the characters' contrasting ideas about their heritage and identity. Throughout the story. Dee goes back and forth on being proud and rejecting her heritage. For example, when she decides at dinner that she wants the butter dish, she shows that she respects her heritage because she knows that her uncle carved that with from a tree they used to have. However, she wants it for the wrong reason, saying that she will use it only for decoration. Another example is when she wants the quilts that Mama has. She states that she wants them because of the generations of clothing and effort put into making...
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...Chris Themes of Everyday Use by Alice Walker In the Alice Walker’s story “Everyday Use”, two sisters portray their contrasting family views on what they perceive to be heritage. The idea is that a quilt is a part of this family's history. They aren't just parts of cloth put together to make a blanket. The quilt symbolizes their ancestors' lives and tells a story with every single inch of cloth. Understanding the reasoning of why the author wrote this story is very important; valuing the culture and traditions of your family is extremely meaningful. This is shown by the mother’s thoughts on the quilts, “Both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece about the size of a penny matchbox that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War. (367-368)"In the story, Walker presents Maggie, who is the younger sister, as an example of heritage in terms of passing it on through the generations with knowledge and respect. Maggie unlike her older sister knew how to sew and appreciated personally and emotionally on how much time and effort where put into the quilts whereas Dee sees the quilt valued only for financial and aesthetic reasons. Maggie and Dee have very different ideas about what constitutes their heritage and for Maggie, the family heirlooms are filled with the presence of the people who made and used them. Dee on the other hand is angered...
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...Meredith Butler English 1102 Fiction Essay In the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker, the author attempts to show the contrasts between family members in regards to their heritage during the 1960’s. Ms. Walker tells the story of how different the family members are in education, lifestyle and beliefs. In doing so, she illustrates the importance of everyday items and of everyday people. Ms. Walker, through the point of view of the mother, paints the picture of a young woman, too good for her family, running off to the city only to find that the city values her heritage and conversely, now must she. The character of Dee is first described by her mother in the excerpt, “Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure” (Walker, 1973). This is in contrast to her “large, manly mother who can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man” (Walker) and her sister who was disfigured in a fire as a young child. The same fire that Dee stands and watches, so intently, that her mother thought to ask her “why she didn’t do a dance around the ashes” (Walker). It is never stated why Dee feels such deep hatred for her home, however shame and ignorance play a key role. “Dee wanted nice things” (Walker), things that would be difficult if not impossible to a young black girl of the time to obtain. Her mother often notes that Dee daydreams to the point of not blinking, determined to get what she wants. When Dee’s mother and the town raise money to send Dee off to school...
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...“The title of the story, Everyday Use, refers to the living heritage of the Johnson family, a heritage that is still in “everyday use.” This culture has been carried on throughout decades and centuries simply because of the continuous use of its traditions. Alice Walker portrays Dee as a character who has naturally drifted away from her family and heritage ever since she was born. Although Maggie, Dee, and Ms. Johnson are all a part of the same heritage, Dee’s personality had always contrasted from her family because she had always shown disapproval towards her heritage, unlike her family, who work to preserve their culture. Therefore, Dee is different compared to her family because of her continuous hatred for her heritage and culture that causes her to adopt a new one. An early indication of Dee’s difference was her response to the destruction of her home. As she stood in front of the burning house, Dee had “a look of concentration on her face.” With the destruction of the house, Dee believed her past and her roots were also being destroyed (Jamie). To Dee, the thought of her house being burnt down gives her hope for a new lifestyle along with a new culture. In contrast to Dee’s response to the situation, Maggie has a permanent reminder of this event. From the scars found on her arms and legs,...
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...Culture struggle In the story “Everyday Use” Alice Walker clearly depicts two contrasting meanings of heritage through characterization and symbolism of her two daughters, walker highlights the difference between two interpretations of African American culture and heritage. The gist of the story in “Everyday Use” is how mama bit by bit rejects the superficial beliefs of Dee, her older and extraordinary daughter in admiration of the values about heritage from her less fortunate daughter Maggie. With a more profound thought walker is going into the contrasting culture and heritage of African Americans and superficial African Americans. Mama narrates the story, Ms. Johnson or “Mama” is a woman whose everyday life is part of her culture and heritage. Mama describes herself as, “a large, big-boned woman with rough, man working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill a hog as mercilessly as a man”(155). With knowing that only has a second grade education we can say that she has no choice but to follow tradition and heritage, and stay in the home like she grew up in and work the field as other before her did. Even as mama is more or less forced to do so, still she has a great understanding and value of the concept of heritage and culture. In knowing Mama’s love and compassion for her heritage she gives the quilts to Maggie, because Dee wants the quilts to preserve and display her heritage of her ancestors. Mama gives the quilts...
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...In her short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker takes up what is a recurrent theme in her work: the representation of the harmony as well as the conflicts and struggles within African-American culture. “Everyday Use” focuses on an encounter between members of the rural Johnson family. This encounter––which takes place when Dee (the only member of the family to receive a formal education) and her male companion return to visit Dee’s mother and younger sister Maggie––is essentially an encounter between two different interpretations of, or approaches to, African-American culture. Walker employs characterization and symbolism to highlight the difference between these interpretations and ultimately to uphold one of them, showing that culture and heritage are parts of daily life. The opening of the story is largely involved in characterizing Mrs. Johnson, Dee’s mother and the story’s narrator. More specifically, Mrs. Johnson’s language points to a certain relationship between herself and her physical surroundings: she waits for Dee “in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy” (88). The emphasis on the physical characteristics of the yard, the pleasure in it manifested by the word “so,” points to the attachment that she and Maggie have to their home and to the everyday practice of their lives. The yard, in fact, is “not just a yard. It is like an extended living room” (71), confirming that it exists for her not only as an object of property, but also as the place...
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